September 2019 - Uluru

Sep 22

While waiting at the airport, I played Pokemon Go. Don’t you just hate it, when you drop a lure and your character drifts away from it. Boo.

In Sydney, ibis birds would walk around everywhere. We were eating a packet of French fries in Circular Quay and we accidentally dropped some chips on the ground. Silly of us. The bird was able to distinguish the difference between a cigarette butt and chips. We watched it decide and saw it picked up the chips. I was most impressed by its ability to adapt. 

The MCA cafe really has the perfect view of the Sydney Opera House and the harbour bridge. In the one corner you can see both of them. My sister and I had lovely time eating lunch there. Just slightly ruined by poor service. They mixed up our drinks. Took away our table number stand, when the food has not been served. By noon the cafe was packed out and most of the patrons mainly ordered drinks. We are the odd one out. That explains a lot. I managed to squeeze in 2 x T5 raids, one with little kids at the State Library and one at a fountain by the park. No shiny MewTwo though. 

My sister and I went back to the hotel to properly check-in and have a nap. By 3pm we headed back out to the city. Unfortunately, Sportsgirl shop no longer resides in Pitt street mall. It has moved to Wyndham station. My sister wanted to buy a phone case but we only had 30 mins before all the shops would close. I did one more T5 raid on George St, and again, no shiny MewTwo. But I got a 98 IV one. Not bad I guess. 

We had dinner in Glebe. Faijita Flying sisters. Trio dip (cheese with kale pen is the best), fried taco brisket with potato, and mango soft shell taco was sweet. The corn cob and watermelon salad was so so. My sister found the area to be a bit too dark for her liking. 

Sept 23

Flying from Sydney to Ayers Rock, we watched John Wick: chapter 3. Took a nap and the plane hasn’t arrived, then we realise there was a time difference. Argh! We both felt tired as we got off the plane. After we had checked-in, we took another nap. By the time we woke up, we have missed out on all the free tours in the afternoon. With nothing better to do, we went to Gecko’s cafe for dinner. We had an outback pizza (kangaroo & emu) with crocodile ribs. Walked around the town square and sussed out their IGA.  

Sept 24

5am in the morning. We waited for our tour bus to arrive. With so many buses stopping by and no staff to control the crowds. It was more or less a self-serve check-if-your-tour-bus has arrived. I had to duck in and out and ask staff, am I on your list? It was 9 degrees. Cold. We both wore sandals to sunrise tour for Field of Lights. Nuts we were. It even rained on us. Other tourist wore active wear and duck feathered quilted jackets still felt cold. 

Up close, the field of lights resemble neuron connections. From a look out point, it was white light bulbs across a paddock. By then the sun has risen and colourful lights were turned off. We had hot chocolate with some cookies. Aaron the bus driver entertained us with stories of snakes and lizards coming out from their hideouts in search of water after a day of rain. Also, he kindly took some happy snaps for us.   

Upon arriving back at the hotel, my sister went straight to bed. I went off to meet up with other hotel guests for a garden bush walk tour with Leroy. I learned about the difference between native trees from the wester desert and gum trees originating from interstate, the latter depends on water or they would die and collapse on you. 

The native fig and quandong was a highlight. Good food come in small packages. Quandong tree is hemiparasitic and needs a host tree nearby, or it would sprout 3 trees from the ground to support itself. When you see pods on the white cypress tree means they have found underground water. Desert oak tree release resin to sop fires burning it. The pods from the desert oak carry a sweet taste like a marshmallow. At the end of the tour, I grabbed a piece of fig and a quandong for my sister.

After dropping off the native plant at the hotel room, I set off to do one T1 raid for my sister’s account, and it was all they way across the dirt road to another hotel. I asked my sister to meet me at the Kulata Academy cafe for lunch. When I got back, both the Gecko’s cafe and Kuala Academy cafe was packed out. Phew. We got a spot.

A quick browse at the post office and souvenir shop, we went to Wintjiri Arts + Museum to listen in on bush food experience s(free activity). Only bush plum and honey grevillea are the two fruits I did not see in person. Apparently, they have just beginning to flower. We got the chance to sample short bread with roasted wattleseed served with rosella strawberry jam. Yum. 

We stayed and watched an astrology documentary narrated by Geoffrey Rush. There is a big emu in the northern western sky. Ooooh! CFS kicked in and I missed half of the footage.

Evening sunset tour of Field of Light was just as cold and windy as the sunrise tour. I had two flutes of bubbly wine and triple serving of the blue cheese puffs canapés. It kept me happy for a while. My sister and I took pre-sunset pics. Smart. This time chose a shorter route. Smart. We didn’t want to miss the only two buses that would take us back to the hotel. Smart.

Sept 25

Uluru the rock is located within a national park and it costs $25 pp for entry. Even if you want to jog or ride a bike there, you have to pay for entry, and yes, there is a yearly pass. 

The segway tour was bloody awesome. We got to see and hear the stories behind the shapes, rock formation, engravings, and shapes that make Uluru. So many hidden gems. There are two sections of the rock are off limits to photography. Towards the back and the big lips (a cultural taboo between the genders). Here we saw a head carved into Uluru (okay for snaps). The uneven, rocky, different sands, and bush made the segway tour all the more fun. Loving the rugged pathway. The segway held up its weight in gold. Flawless. 

Kyle our segway tour host told us how much he missed Maccas, Krispy Kreme, and Kmart. Sure we laughed with him about it. But I can see how it can be a big of lifestyle change. There is only the IGA and a post office for budget retail therapy. Not much junk food sold in this area. The nearest city is Alice Spring and it is a 500 km drive from Ayers Rock resort. 

The helicopter ride was short but we got the chance to see the top of Uluru. It was a spectacular view and my first time in a helicopter. A good choice indeed. The helicopter can fit 6 people. The seat belt was unique. You had to rotate to unlock it. The pilot pointed out the east side of Uluru is the indigenous community’s residence. 

Sound of silence (food experience). After canapés and two flutes of bubbly wine I was tipsy. A second evening with a sunset view of Uluru. This time we aimed for smoked kangaroo canapés. I got the chance to see the planet Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, southern cross, and the Milky Way. Wow, Plus the big emu in the sky. Upside down, but I got to see it. Extra wow. The host had a really good sky pointer. Superb! Nothing like a cup of warm tea to smooth the belly from over eating. Hee hee. 

What I did notice was the tours were held on the west side of Uluru. We are encouraged to take snaps during sunrise and sunset and according to the guides, it so that the cultural images on Uluru would be covered by shadows from the clouds.

Sept 26

The breakfast session at Gecko’s cafe was over and lunch served until 11am. Due to time constraints we had lunch at Kulata Academy cafe again, but this time we sat outside, as it was nice and warm. Behind the Emu walk apartments was a communication tower labelled emu look out. Umm. An interesting poke stop.

The 12 noon airport transfer bus arrived at the Ayers rock airport on time, but the queue to check-in was super slow, and we only just made it in with 12:50pm. Geez. My sister went off to buy emu jerky for bro and dad. lol. The departure lounge was too small to fit the amount of guests flying out. The queue went far back as the toilets.

Dropped our bags and went into the city. There we got off at Museum and onto Liverpool street. I was putting away my smartphone in my denim jacket and I fell down a short flight of stairs in World Square. I ended up cutting my left knee and bruising my right knee and ankle. I told my sister we still had 30 minutes to spare, there is no need to rush to the dinner reservation. I hobbled all way to Chippendale to try out Bubble Nini fresh pearls tea. Nearly all the stuff on the menu was sold out. My sister had the hot matcha and I settled for the brown sugar one. The pearls were not hard rubbery as most. So yeah. Nice.

Sept 27

5:50am I checked-in and at the bag drop the machine refused and issued a receipt stating my bag was two kilograms over. The service desk then told me my 7am flight delayed until 1:35pm. They offered to switch us to the 11am flight, I said sure, and they waived the fee for the check-in bag. That flight was delayed as well to 11:55am. It wasn’t just us, Virgin and Jetstar was cancelling and had delayed flights. Something is fishy here.

Both my sister and my butt are sore from sitting down for so long. Nearly all caught up with my tweets. Nice to be back home.